Santander, Nomura lifted by UK buys

Spanish banking giant Santander today reported a 37% jump in UK profits and said it was on course to attract one million new customers in Britain this year.

The bank, which owns Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and the good bits of Bradford & Bingley, said profits in the UK leapt from £849 million to £1.16 billion in the first nine months of the year.

Santander, which bought Abbey five years ago next month, said it benefited from the takeovers of A&L and B&B, which it rescued from collapse last year.

Japanese broker Nomura was also rewarded today for its bravery during the darkest days of the financial crisis.

It posted third-quarter profits of 28.3 billion yen (£188 million), its largest for nine quarters, having snapped up some of the London-based operations of failed investment bank Lehman Brothers.

The impressive performance by Santander's UK arm, which will see its name changed from Abbey to Santander next year, came as the parent company reported a 3% slide in profits to 6.74 billion (£6.12 billion).

More than 800,000 new accounts were opened with Santander's banks in the UK in the first nine months of the year putting it on target to open more than one million in 2009, taking the total above eight million.

Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Abbey, said the business is now seen as "a safe and attractive home" for UK savers.

He said Abbey is supporting the UK economy through "increased lending to homeowners and businesses".

Abbey was responsible for 18% of gross mortgage lending in the first nine months of the year, up from 14.1% in the same period of 2008. However, the value fell from £30.1 billion to £19 billion as the market shrank.